Sheriff's Panties in a Twist Over Truck With Anti-Trump Message

Eric Barnett

Photos of the truck went viral when they were posted to Facebook on Wednesday by Fort Bend County, Texas Sheriff Troy Nehls, who wrote that he had received numerous calls about the decal, which reads in bold, capitalized letters: "F*ck Trump and f*ck you for voting for him".

"We're not going to be arresting anybody, and we're not going to be releasing the name of the person who owns the truck, either", his office says.

Nehls said Wednesday that the message could cause offense and raised the possibility of a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge.

A Texas sheriff wants to charge a local woman with disorderly conduct for putting a giant anti-Trump sticker on her truck - but prosecutors say he's spinning his wheels.

"I'm glad to see our government officials are concentrating on what's important", one comment said.

"This is nothing", she said.

And the Internet responded swiftly as thousands of commenters flowed in offering relentless trolling, thoughtful defenses of free speech, and cutting rebukes of partisan hypocrisy.

A Texas sheriff says he could throw the book at a driver over his limited vocabulary and dislike for President Trump.

Others said the language used in the sticker was just as graphic as previous statements from President Donald Trump, alluding to 2005 tape, where Trump spoke to former NBC TV personality Billy Bush. "They honk their horn, they give you a thumbs up". She receives some negative reactions, particularly among older white men, but most people stop to laugh, tell her stories or ask where to buy it, Fonseca said. She said the decal had attracted attention before and that she had been pulled over, but had never gotten a ticket.

In response to the critics, Nehls posted the disorderly conduct law. Days later, the charges were dropped after police attorneys conceded that the stick-figure display was protected by the First Amendment.

KPRC legal analyst Brian Wice explained Sheriff Nehls was wrong about the law and that the 1971 case of Cohen v. California settled the issue before the United States Supreme Court.

Nehls later shared the Texas statute he was thinking of, which prohibits language that "tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace".

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